


Innocents

by skyblue_reverie



Series: These Violent Delights [3]
Category: Stargate Atlantis, Westworld (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Alternate Universe - Western, M/M, Pre-Slash, Temporary Character Death, Trope Bingo Amnesty, Trope Bingo Round 15, dark themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:34:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28400211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skyblue_reverie/pseuds/skyblue_reverie
Summary: Rodney visits the park to check on John.  All is not well.
Relationships: Rodney McKay/John Sheppard
Series: These Violent Delights [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2075637
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19
Collections: Trope Bingo: Round Fifteen





	Innocents

**Author's Note:**

> SGA/Westworld fusion. See [series notes](https://archiveofourown.org/series/2075637) for info. Some of the dialogue from this part from Season 1, Episode 1 of Westworld. It's a pretty dark 'verse - see end notes for more detail about this part.

Rodney stepped off the train along with the newest batch of guests to the park. He’d been spending too much time here, but after all, it was his job to make sure the hosts’ programming held up under real world conditions. Or at least that’s what he’d tell anyone who questioned him about his repeated visits here.

Truth was, he came here mostly to see Sheppard. There was something about him – he’d always been gorgeous, of course, that was standard, but since the latest update there’d been something else. Something more. It fascinated him, almost as much as it scared him. He knew that the party line spouted by both Weir and the Delos Corporation was that the hosts weren’t “real,” whatever that meant. It was actually one of the few things that Weir and the Delos board of directors agreed on. But he’d never been sure how true that was, and now he was even less sure. 

“This place is fucking wild,” he heard one guest say to his companion.

His companion sneered a bit. “This is basic. Level one. You ride out of town, that’s where the real demented shit begins.”

The first man looked impressed and the second man continued. “That’s where my man Sheppard comes in. He’s like a guide.” They strolled over toward where Sheppard was standing and Rodney followed them, wanting to hear what they’d say about him.

“He’s getting up a posse to head into the hills to take out some bandits. I did it but it was boring as fuck. Second time I did it, I shot Sheppard in the back and joined the bandits. That was a lot more fun.”

The two men laughed and then shared a fist bump. Rodney ground his teeth.

“Hell, why wait?” the first man said and then without warning he was drawing his gun and shooting Sheppard in the chest, unloading bullets in rapid succession. Sheppard jerked and looked confused for a moment and then he slumped to the ground, blood pouring from the holes in his chest. It only took an instant. People were screaming and running in every direction but Rodney was frozen in his tracks.

The shooter bent over the crumped figure of Sheppard and tugged the shiny silver star off of his chest, pinning it to his own shirt. “There’s a new sheriff in town,” he announced before sauntering off with his friend, and Rodney would have rolled his eyes at the cliché if he hadn’t been so busy being paralyzed with shock. It had all happened so suddenly – one minute Sheppard was fine and the next he was… not.

It wasn’t like Rodney had never seen Sheppard in worse shape. Sheppard got brought back to the labs with all kinds of wounds. But that was clinical, somehow, and he was already inert when he was brought in. It was easy to rationalize it as damage to a machine, easily fixed. This was different. This was visceral and real and _wrong_.

Then Sheppard moaned and Rodney wanted to throw up. Oh god, he wasn’t dead yet. Rodney forced himself to approach Sheppard and kneel next to him, ignoring the blood pooled on the wooden boards of the sidewalk, blood that was now seeping into the knees of his slacks. Following some impulse he couldn’t explain, he took one of Sheppard’s hands into his and said, “You’re going to be okay.” 

Sheppard tried to laugh at that, and coughed up blood. Rodney swallowed hard. What the fuck was he doing, trying to comfort Sheppard? That wasn’t merciful, that was cruel. He spared one moment for self-disgust. Then he looked straight into Sheppard’s pain-clouded hazel eyes and said, “Take yourself offline.”

Sheppard relaxed immediately, his fingers twitching just slightly against Rodney’s before his eyes closed and his body settled into complete stillness. 

Rodney sat down hard. Sheppard would be fine, he reminded himself. Hell, he wouldn’t even remember this. But Rodney would, and he was never going to let himself forget.

**Author's Note:**

> John is shot and killed. He is a robot so this is a temporary death but a) it is not fixed in this part and b) John is not aware that he is a robot and that his death will be temporary.
> 
> This fic fills the square "death fic" for my [trope bingo card](https://skyblue-reverie.dreamwidth.org/88973.html).


End file.
